Accident, Police Stories Important Part Of Coverage Mix

ASK THE EDITOR EARL MAUCKER EDITOR

June 13, 1999|EARL MAUCKER EDITOR

Q: In Sunrise, there was an appalling accident. A school crossing guard doing her duty properly was hit and badly injured by a driver with obviously no respect for school zones, children or crossing guards. While the story of this incident was on the local TV news, not one word of it could be found in the Sun-Sentinel. It seems to me you missed an opportunity to highlight the subject of school safety by completely ignoring this incident. Does someone have to lose a life before the subject becomes important enough to publicize?

-- ROBERT W. BOICE

Sunrise

A: Dr. Boice is correct. We did not publish that story and probably should have reported the incident. In looking back at the police reports, we found that police described the injury of the crossing guard as "non-incapacitating."

It is likely that the reporter covering the police felt that, based on the police report, the matter was not serious enough to follow up. The reporter did not realize that the woman injured was a crossing guard who had just escorted a group of schoolchildren.

Needless to say, there are hundreds of incidents each day involving South Florida police agencies. We do our best to track them and report on the ones that will be most relevant to our readers.

In addition to having reporters in nearly every community in South Florida, we monitor an array of channels on the police radio. We also employ a service that has a more sophisticated approach to monitoring marine, government, police and security agencies to give us maximum coverage of the communities we serve.

We could literally fill this newspaper every day from front to back with reports from police, hospital emergencies and other tragedies that are part of our existence in South Florida.

An issue we deal with at the newspaper is just how many police stories we should publish daily.

Many of our readers feel we rely too heavily on accidents, shootings and other police-related activity. They feel that running too many stories on crime and accidents gives our coverage a negative feel and would prefer a more balanced approach.

We try to cover the most important incidents, the ones we feel have the most impact or are of interest to our readers, but we do tell reporters to use their best judgment when scanning the police blotters across our communities.

In addition to regular municipal reporters who are responsible to stay in touch with their communities, we have about a half-dozen staffers directly responsible for police coverage. These reporters work staggered shifts to make sure we are monitoring police activity throughout our news cycle.

On a story like the recent tragedy west of Boca Raton, where six residents were killed in an automobile wreck, we pull reporters from several areas and create a team to cover every angle of the story. Photographers and the art department are quickly called into action to be part of the coverage team.

Sometimes stories come to us by way of tips. Some of those may turn into good stories; others can't be verified. We will not run a story until it has been properly documented.

We strive to be aggressive in our news coverage, but balance, fairness and accuracy are essential.

The serious injury of a crossing guard is news we should have had in the newspaper.

We will do everything possible to give the police agencies in South Florida the thorough coverage they deserve.

In the meantime, we'd like to encourage Dr. Boice and others who have information to keep us informed, so we can keep you informed.